The present invention, in some embodiments thereof, relates to systems for cleaning body conduits and/or body cavities, and more particularly, but not exclusively, to systems for cleaning the lower GI tract.
The well-known enema has a long history as a system for cleaning the colon. An enema is a tube inserted into the lower colon through the rectum, and used to inject water or other liquids into the colon. Cleaning is achieved when the injected liquid, mixed with fecal matter, is ejected from the body by natural processes.
More recently, closed hydrotherapy (or cleansing) systems have been introduced, wherein a liquid source tube, capable of supplying liquid under low pressure, is paired with an evacuation tube In a first phase of the cleansing cycle liquids flow from the rectum up the colon due to the low pressure and fill the colon cavity, mixing with feces and partially dissolving it; in a second phase of the cleansing cycle the mixtures of liquid and fecal matter can then be evacuated from the bowel through the evacuation tube. In similarity to the enema, the speculum of such systems is usually introduced approximately 6-8 centimeters into the body. An example is shown at wwwdotdotoloresearchdotcom.
A colonoscope (a hand-driven flexible endoscope able to reach further into the lower GI system, up to the cecum) has been suggested for use in cleaning of the GI tract. However, because of the size limitations of working channels of endoscopes the throughput of the colonoscope when used for cleaning is not great, and would be appropriate at most for cleaning local feces spots. The colonoscope is not effective for cleaning a lower GI system which may be filled with up to 2 liters of feces distributed over a lumen more than 1.5 meters long.
Easy-glide, at wwwdoteasy-glidedotcom, advertises a system which connects to an endoscope and which sprays water into an intestine through an irrigation channel and which withdraws matter from the intestine by providing suction through an exhaust channel connected to a by standard medical vacuum line.